CES has always been the showcase for the latest and greatest in televisions, and the 2024 show did not disappoint. The show, led by well-known players such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, and TCL, saw an array of televisions that were both larger and thinner, and packed sharper displays.
Even as CES has expanded its scope to include everything from automobiles to cruising technology, television has long been the bread and butter of the show. The past few years saw a flurry of flashier designs like curved and even rollable displays. But even with the trend of transparent displays, 2024 focused on more practical improvements.
As with many products at CES, the televisions that make their debut here may not go on sale for a while – or at all. But the announcements give you an idea of what you’ll encounter in the store, and just how much you’ll have to pay for them.
Here are some of the biggest themes.
Size Matters
A key focus for this year’s show: Bigger is better.
This comes as consumers gravitated towards larger displays in 2023. Last year, 44% of people reported buying a new television because they wanted a large display, according to NPD.
The TV makers didn’t disappoint. TCL’s flagship QM8 Mini LED television goes up to the mega-sized 115 inches with the QM891G. It also added a 98-inch option in its Q6, QM7, and QM8 lines.
Sales of TCL’s 98-inch TVs rose 600% in 2023 over a year earlier, according to Chris Hamdorf, the company’s senior vice president of North America.
“We see a fantastic opportunity with 98 inch TVs as we go into 2024 and we build on our success as a top two unit selling brand in the U.S.,” Hamdorf said.
Hisense likewise touted a 100-inch QLED TV.
Samsung also bet big on bigger screens. The company said its Neo QLED 8K, Neo QLED 4K, QLED 4K, and Crystal UHD televisions would all come in 98 inches.
The company also introduced new OLED TVs, with the S90D and S95D lines coming in sizes ranging between 55 and 77 inches.
To account for the larger display, the company touted an upgraded artificial intelligence-powered “Upscaling Engine” and its “Real Depth Enhancer Pro” feature to smooth over the larger pixels on such a gigantic screen.
Brains and Brawn
AI will be a buzzword heard around CES a lot this week, and even Samsung wasn’t done with it yet. The company touted a separate AI system that would run the TV’s energy mode, which it claimed would lower its contribution to the power bill by up to 23%.
This comes on top of last week’s announcement from Roku that it would be rolling out a Smart Picture feature to all televisions running on the Roku OS that uses AI to dynamically optimize your screen based on what you’re watching. The company is using – what else? – AI to determine the content and the best settings.
The good news is, you don’t have to buy a new television to get the feature if you already own a Roku television made by the company or one of its partners, like TCL or Hisense.
Samsung also highlighted some of the accessibility aspects of its TVs, including the ability to read subtitles aloud in real time, the first time such a feature has been built into television. It also expanded its Relumino Mode, which uses AI to enhance the contrast, color and sharpness of certain parts of the screen to allow people with low vision better enjoy the content and launched last year. Samsung has now added a multi-view mode, allowing the screen to be split with a regular version on one half, and the Relumino screen on the other.
TCL, meanwhile, touted its AI-powered AIPQ processor, which will be made available on more televisions, including its UHD sets. Its 115-inch QM891G, meanwhile, boasts an even higher tier AIPQ Ultra processor with more horsepower to handle the different dimming zones.
LG likewise unveiled its updated Alpha 11 AI Processor, with four times the performance of the prior processor, allowing it to better understand your needs and set personalized preferences for you.
This extra processing power isn’t just for show. Brian Comiskey, director of thematic programs at CTA, told reporters at a Sunday press conference that he believes TVs will eventually become “an intelligent center for the home,” including serving as a smart command hub.
To prove this point, Google executive Eric Kay said during the Monday LG press conference that you’ll soon be able to control Google Home devices through an LG television.
That will likely be just the start of where TVs are going.